Get state out of broadcasting

Corzine’s budget proposes to cut the NJN TV and radio network by 27 percent to $4.3 million. NJN executives say if the organization frees itself from state bureaucracy it can raise more private money. Good idea. Transfer the license, the state shouldn’t be in the broadcasting business.

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About Bob Ingle

Bob Ingle is Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers and co-author of The New York Times' Best Seller, "The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption" and "Chris Christie: The Inside Story Of His Rise To Power". He has won numerous journalism awards and is often a news analyst on radio and television. Twitter @ bobingle99.

16 Responses to Get state out of broadcasting

Sounds like a win-win situation. The station wants out and the state saves $4.3Mill just about the amount needed to save the state parks. Now let’s see if the financial geniuses can put two and two together. Don’t hold your breath

With channels such as sprout my kids don’t have a need to use public TV. They can watch all those shows anytime now. Really NJN is a drain. Besides Jon prefers appearing on New York and Philadelphia media instead of New Jersey.

A little off topic but I see where sen Bob smith wants to create another agency “stormwater utility systems”….Bill 1166 now in committee ,if affect this will be charging property owners for the disposal of “rain”….this is not a joke they want to tax the rain , read the bill I’m afraid the only thing left is to tax the air as well….http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/S1500/1166_I1.PDF

I like NJN, but I’m willing to pay for it. At least for my $100 I get something. This is unlike our government, who between the town, county, and state take over $30K a year, and all I get back is a headache.

Forget $4.3 million. I still want to know what the hell happened to the $8.6 billion that got stolen instead of being used to build schools, and why nobody is in jail yet for stealing that money.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch from 101winsnews today: (notice the last line about how Christie doesn’t think the corruption will end in NJ, well isn’t it his job to see that it does? duh. With a US Attorney who says it won’t change, an attorney General who won’t lock anyone up and an Inspector General who pretends NJ politicians aren’t crooked, no wonder nothing changes)

N.J. Outpaced Region in Federal Corruption Arrests

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey outpaced Connecticut and other neighboring states in federal corruption arrests last year, despite a six-year streak of corruption convictions in the Garden State.

And New Jersey’s top prosecutor expects just as many officials collared this year.

Since 2002, 128 public employees in New Jersey have been convicted on federal corruption charges. About a third of those were elected officials, including state lawmakers, mayors and town council members.

Those numbers back up New Jersey’s reputation as a corruption hotbed.

U.S. attorney’s offices in Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland each reported a dozen or fewer public employees facing corruption charges last year.

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie says he doubts the culture of corruption in his state is ever going to end.

Isn’t that a hoot. The Inspector General attributes the actions of NJ officials to them being “high minded” in her last report. Simultaneous with this the US Attorney for NJ says the state is so crooked that he doesn’t see any end in sight to the crookedness in NJ.

Maybe the Inspector General should be elected as the US Attorney for NJ. She can write a report saying that all the politicians in NJ are honest and “high minded”. Then she can take a long vacation since there won’t be any reason to do any more investigations. Thereafter when anyone gets caught stealing, she can write a report that says they should go to jail but the “high minded” public officials who allowed the thieves to steal should be exonerated since they are “high minded”.

1. No government should own a TV station – that’s not the way we do thing in the USA. We have afree press, not a GOVT press.2. Immediately severing ties to NJN (as opposed to the plan proposed) saves all the money needed to keep the parks open.3. Severing ties with NJN now allows for a precedent (if done right) for eleminatining employees from the state pension debachle for detached state funded third parties.

Will that be done? NO, of course not. Where do we live? Never in NJ in a million years.

PB

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Bob Ingle, Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers, on politics in "The Soprano State".

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Debuted October 18, 2010

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Bob IngleBob Ingle is Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey Newspapers and co-author of The New York Times' Best Seller, "The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption." Hear him Fridays at 5 p.m. on www.tommygshow.com radio. twitter.com/bobingle99 E-mail Bob

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"Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power," written by Bob Ingle and Michael Symons, offers the first inside portrait of New Jersey’s governor, who in two years as governor emerged as a national Republican Party figure famous for his blunt public statements. The book details Christie’s combative public persona and deep family roots, tracing his improbable political rise from a bruising stint in county government to his anti-corruption crusade as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power goes behind the scenes to reveal his family life, his public life, and what the future might hold..

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"The Soprano State," written by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure, details the you-couldn't-make-this-up true story of the corruption that has pervaded New Jersey politics, government, and business for the past thirty years. From Jimmy Hoffa purportedly being buried somewhere beneath the end zone in Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands, through allegations of a thoroughly corrupt medical and dental university, through Mafia influence at all levels, to a governor who suddenly declares himself a “gay American” and resigns, the Garden State might indeed be better named after the HBO mobsters.

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